Business Development

As a Member-based Consortium, W3C is always looking for new organizations to join and bring their unique use cases and perspective to our efforts. The Business Development team is missioned to identify potential Members, often by working with the other parts of the W3C Team, and to bring those organizations in as Members or Business Group Participants.

The function is responsible for working with our network of Evangelists who are individuals that have relationships with organizations that could be W3C Members in their industry or geography.

The Business Development team also works closely with the W3C Industry and Communications teams to identify key external events that we should engage with as either Sponsors, Presenters or Attendees. The primary goal of these events, from a Business Development perspective, is to promote the work of W3C and identify organizations that may want to join the Consortium.

Sylvia Cadena

Role: Chief Development Officer

I joined the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as Chief Development Officer in September 2024, and I will be focusing on setting direction to their expanding development portfolio across internationalization, accessibility, privacy and security for the Web, ensuring the longevity of the organization by defining a vision for financial security.

I am a seasoned international development expert with 30 years’ experience across Latin America and the Asia Pacific. I have extensive experience in fundraising, design, management and reporting at local, national and regional level, leading purposeful collaborations that strategically use the Internet and the Web for social, economical, and cultural development.

Before W3C, I worked at APNIC for 16 years. During my tenure, I worked to establish the Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF Asia); the Seed Alliance and more recently the APNIC Foundation, where I worked to expand its grant making, allocating close to 11M USD to close to 200 initiatives across 32 economies. I also led the design and implementation of a number of training and professional development initiatives addressing gender diversity and social inclusion in APAC.

Throughout my career I have served the Internet technical community on a variety of roles across a number of advisory bodies and selection committees related to Internet Governance, innovation, women in technology and professional development initiatives with a focus on the Internet industry, at a global and regional level. I have addressed many national, regional and international conferences.

Marie-Claire Forgue

Role: Head of W3C Training

Marie-Claire Forgue serves as Head of W3C Training. She developed the W3Cx MOOC program, in partnership with edX, where Web developers worldwide can learn front-end Web development techniques using W3C Web standards. Previously, she crafted W3DevCampus, a learning platform hosting small private courses. Additionally, Marie-Claire is a member of the W3C Developer relations team, organizing meetups and participating in online and in-person communities via forums, social media (@w3cdevs), etc.

She is also involved in the dissemination activities of several projects funded by the European Commission. She joined W3C in 2001 and served as Head of W3C European Communications for over 10 years.

Marie-Claire received a Ph.D. degree (computer graphics and parallel processing) in Computer Science from the University of Côte d'Azur and INRIA, France. After a year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Dynamic Graphics Project Lab at the University of Toronto, Canada, she worked at NTT's Human Interface Lab, Japan, for two years. Her research interests were focused on illumination algorithms and scene modeling. After that, she studied filmmaking in Vancouver, Canada. She has directed several short films and documentaries, and got interested in interactive multimedia back in 1993.

Xiaoqian Wu

Role: W3C China Site Manager

Ms. Wu Xiaoqian (吴小倩) joined W3C in October 2013. Since then, she has been serving as a team contact for a few W3C groups, including the Web Applications WG, the Web Editing WG, the MiniApps WG and the Chinese Web IG.

In September 2018, she became the W3C China Site Manager, responsible for our daily operation in China.

Xiaoqian holds a BA in Software Engineering and an MSc in Animation Design.

Naomi Yoshizawa

Role: W3C Member Relations Lead | W3C Japan Site Manager

Naomi is the W3C Member Relations Lead to ensure member satisfaction, encourage participation in W3C groups and events. She is also appointed as the site manager of W3C Japan.

Prior to joining W3C, Naomi worked at AT&T Japan as a manager of Marketing Communications for AT&T World Access. She worked on a team that created an innovative prepaid card, produced publications and bids for designs, and developed sales channels. She was awarded a Grand Prize for Best Operations Manager.

She earned an MBA of International Management, from Aoyama Gakuin University, accredited by EFMD.